Quick question regarding puppy training and the words I should use to discipline him. I have a 2 month old Cairn Terrier named Vinny and I'm dedicated to getting him on the right track from the start. After browsing around for tips on training I noticed that many sites mention some words to use but none discuss whether or not to use the same words for different reasons.

Let's say I decide to use the word "Off" to tell him to stop biting and "No" for trying to get him to use the newspaper and not my carpet, would it be beneficial for us to use the same word for both? The reason I ask is because I want to make sure I do what's best from the start and if I use "No" for the papers and "No" for no barking, he may get confused, or would he get more confused having to understand different words associated with different things.

Congrats on the Cairny! Great breed. I have a 15 year old Cairn, named McMurphy.

For stopping behaviors, I've found a quick "Unt Uh", works great. The sound of that really gets their attention, much better then "No". Once I get that stoppage of behavior with the "Unt Uh", I quickly give them an appropriate behavior (with a command) to do, that I can praise for.

So I'm not really giving them a command for negative behaviors. I don't think works very well with dogs. I'm using a sound just to startle long enough to stop the behavior I don't want, then quickly redirecting them to do something positive, and that I give a command to and reward.

So if mine are barking, as soon as I get their attention and the barking stops, I give them a "Sit" command, then put my finger to my lips and say "shh quiet", then I give them a treat. Once they get the concept I start lengthening the time of quiet, before the treat.

When it comes to a "no" word, it's not so much the word, it's the tone. You could be saying "what a wonderful dog you are", and if it's in a low, growly tone, your pup will still know you're unhappy with it. And you don't need to use different words for each undesirable behavior. Basically, the "no" just lets the pup know it's doing something wrong. I think a generic "no" is a lot better than a specific command like "off". That way, you don't have to teach a new word for each behavior.